


it’s all set in stone anyway

by Morning66



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Angst, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Growing Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morning66/pseuds/Morning66
Summary: Ben proposed to Kai when he was twenty one, two days after she found out she was pregnant with Kenny.“Do I really have a choice?” she’d asked and neither of them had said anything.
Relationships: Kai Green/Ben Tennyson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	it’s all set in stone anyway

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!! 🎃

Ben proposed to Kai when he was twenty one, two days after she found out she was pregnant with Kenny. She’d known he was going to do it, known because someone had caught him at the mall buying the diamond studded band and it was on the evening news before he could even think of a way to ask.

He got home from the mall and then a quick trip to Mr. Smoothy’s to find her standing in the kitchenette of his apartment, leaning against the counter.

“You better have picked out a good one, Ben,” she’d said and he’d stared at the TV on in the background and grinned. 

“Of course I picked out a good one,” he’d said. “How could I pick out a bad ring?”

He’d riffled through the Mr.Smoothy bag he had it in, pulling it out tangled with sticky napkins. He held it out to her.

Kai slapped him across the face somewhere between light and hard. “Get down on one knee, idiot.”

So, Ben knelt on the dirty tile floor in an apartment that was way too dingy for his bank account and held out the ring. 

“Will you marry me?” he asked and he wasn’t sure if she was staring at the ring or the watch on his wrist. Probably the watch, he thought. For Kai, it had always been the Omnitrix.

“Do I really have a choice?” she’d asked and neither of them had said anything. The answer had hung in the air like some kind of spector, musty and dank and heavy and then Kai had broken it by taking the ring from him and slipping it on her finger.

“Yes,” she’d said and it hadn’t felt like anything. There was no breaking of tension, no moment of ecstasy. It was just a formality, a final reminder of what they had known for years.

Ben took the last sip of his smoothie, but what was sweet two minutes ago now tasted like iron, like rust.

***

“Ben,” Gwen had said quietly when she found out.

“What, Gwen?” he’d asked. “Aren’t you going to congratulate me?”

Gwen had pursed her lips and he’d known she must have been thinking because she didn’t correct him on the name. Twenty one was the last year she tried to insist on Gwendolyn, the last year before she realized (or at least, finally accepted) that she couldn’t escape who she was or the things she’d done.

Ben, he’d known that from the very beginning. It was probably the one thing in the history of ever he’d known before her.

Finally, Gwen had reached out and placed a hand on his arm. She was sitting in the passenger seat of the green sports car he’d bought at eighteen and then spent weeks with Kevin tripping out.

“Don’t you think you’re a little young for marriage?” she’d asked.

“What? I’m-I’m mature. I’m like, so mature.” Ben had protested, knowing even then that he was not by any means mature.

“You just asked Kev and I last night if we wanted to go to see the new Sumo Slammer movie, Ben.”

“Because it’s epic! Kenko turns bad again and—“

“And not the point,” Gwen said, waving a hand in front his face to knock him out of his Sumo Slammer reverie. “All I’m saying is, you don’t think you’re moving too fast, do you?”

Ben had stuck out his lip. “I’ve known her since we were ten!”

“And most of those years you never saw her once.”

Ben shrugged his shoulders. “God, Gwen, can’t you ever just be happy for me? We can’t all be Ms. Perfect.”

“I am happy for you. I just don’t want you doing something you’ll regret just because you feel you have too.”

Ben sighed and stared ahead, down the street. He watched a little kid kicking a soccer ball in his front yard, all of maybe five years old. When he spoke, his voice was tired and old and serious and he hated it. “Well, look, that ship sailed years ago, okay? I don’t have a fucking choice. I mean, what if it’s Kenny?”

The name hung heavy in the air and Ben brushed Gwen’s hand off his arm. He gave her a ride home in silence.

***

Ben went with her to the doctor’s with her when Kai had her ultrasound, watched as they rubbed the jelly across her stomach and thought of alien goo, of all the gross things he’d seen.

The nurse came out with a smile on her face. She was young, maybe thirty or so, but then so were they, so young they could barely drink alcohol. She smiled at them, and her dimples crinkled, and Ben’s heart was pounding. Kai’s fingers tangled with his and for once it felt like comfort, like the comfort of two people stuck in a situation they never wanted to be in.

“Well, it’s official!” she said cheerily, brandishing a print out. “You’re going to have a son!”

Kai’s hand tightened around Ben’s and he squeezed back, heart plummeting into his gut. A son, he thought numbly, thinking back to Spanner.

“Kenny,” Kai murmured softly, and Ben guessed they didn’t have to worry about those baby name books his mom had lent them.

“Do you think you could sign something for me?” The nurse asked, oblivious to their reactions. “My son loves seeing you on TV.”

***

Kenny Tennyson was born in December of that year. His eyes were beautifully bright, his face alight with happiness. He took Ben’s breath away in a way even battles hadn’t before. Meeting his son felt like being sixteen again and watching the universe being created.

He looked just like Kenny, Ben thought. Just like Kenny had, all those years before.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! =D
> 
> I know I wrote this, but I really don’t have a problem with Kai as a character. I just don’t like her and Ben and especially don’t like the way they shoehorned them together, so this came about lol.


End file.
